Labor Shortages Due To COVID-19 Could Further Increase Prices & Cause Inflation, Reports Firms!

Companies and firms from America ended 2021 well, but the resurgence of the Covid-19 virus has made experts concerned about inflation. 

A little more than 33% of company economists noted that the rising Covid-19 cases will be the biggest downside risk, beyond rising prices and inflation for firms. This was explained by the National Association for Business Economics (aka NABE) in their quarterly Business Conditions Survey.

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US consumers, firms, and businesses have been worrying about Inflation since the better part of 2021 due to COVID-19, which is notably fueled by global shortages and drawbacks in transportation.

NABE explained that approximately two-thirds of firms reported rising sales in the months of October, November, and December of 2021. This was from their last three surveys and among the highest in the National Association for Business Economics's 40-year history.

It should be known that a little over 60% of those that answered the surveys expressed that sales at their firms returned to pre-crisis numbers.

Jan Hogrefe, the survey chair and is also the chief economist of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, expressed, "The positive results and outlook come despite clearly visible shortages, particularly labor shortages."

To add to this, NABE found 57% of firms saw a shortage in skilled laborers, approximately around 10 points more than the previous October survey. Almost 25% have a hard time finding unskilled labor, compared to just 11% from before.

Jan Hogrefe further stated that both shortages have slowly risen more widespread over the previous year. Almost a little over 30% of respondents expect labor shortages to keep going into 2023 or even further down the line which is bad for firms.

Compared to only 11% of firms that saw supply chain problems continuing next year, a similar viewed those issues as their main downside risk. Opinions change when the problems would conclude, however.

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Notably, supply issues are expected to lessen.